Board index » Word on the Street... » News & Debate




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 3 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: Rwandan Accused in Genocide Asks to Stay in Canada
PostPosted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 1:07 am 
Offline
User avatar
Johnny Guitar
 Profile

Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 4:23 am
Posts: 229
Location: Montreal
i'm sorry....but if that man is truly guilty of speaking publicly to incite to the massacre of hundreds of thousands of people in his own country....i say...send him packing back to his own fucking country and let him rot there....may the crows take good care of him. I have no sympathy for such a man....and fuck the canadian judicial system if they allow him to stay here, fuck 'em.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rwandan Accused in Genocide Asks to Stay in Canada

By Randall Palmer

OTTAWA (Reuters) - A Rwandan accused of inciting murder, extermination and genocide pleaded for the right to stay in Canada on Wednesday lest he be killed or tortured if the Supreme Court of Canada sent him back.

In a court hearing that played out the drama of the Rwandan conflict of a decade ago, the lawyer for Leon Mugesera said Mugesera, a Hutu, was a man of integrity who had sheltered ethnic Tutsis during the genocide, and who had Tutsis in his extended family.

The Canadian government was appealing a lower court decision that said there was not enough evidence that a speech Mugesera made in Rwanda in 1992 was a crime against humanity by inciting Hutus to kill Tutsis.

"All the speech was an incitement to hate," federal attorney Michel Denis told reporters.

The government describes Mugesera as a war criminal who was complicit in the genocide of 1994, when hundreds of thousands of Tutsis died in massacres, many of them hacked to death with machetes.

But Mugesera's lawyer, Guy Bertrand, said the 1992 speech had been mistranslated and misinterpreted.

"There was a false picture painted of Mugesera," Bertrand told the court.

Wearing a gray business suit, Mugesera sat with his wife, who wore a colorful African dress, and his five children, with mainly Hutu supporters behind him.

Across the courtroom aisle were Tutsi Rwandans who have agitated for Canada to deport him.

"I find it unbelievable that that speech can be misinterpreted in any way," said one Tutsi, Juliete Karugahe, who said members of her extended family had been slain.

"I think it's really sad that he should be living safely in Canada after making such a speech," she told Reuters.

Bertrand argued that Mugesera did not urge his people to go out and kill Tutsis. He said the speech was laden with the conditional tense, in which his hearers were urged to action only if attacked or if threatened.

In arguments before the court, government lawyer Denis rejected this.

"'If you don't leave, you'll be exterminated' -- I don't think it's a reassuring conditional tense," he said in French.

Mugesera fled Rwanda for Canada after giving his speech, leaving the African country well before the the start of the 1994 genocide. He says he fears torture or death if deported back home.

But David Matas argued on behalf of Jewish groups that Mugesera should go.

"It isn't just about Rwanda," he told reporters after the hearing. "It's about whether Canada can be effective in protecting its borders from genocidal killers, criminals against humanity, mass murderers."

The court is not likely to make a decision until next year.

_________________
There will always be room at my table for you...


Top
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 1:14 am 
Offline
User avatar
Unthought Known
 WWW  YIM  Profile

Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 10:46 pm
Posts: 9617
Location: Medford, Oregon
Gender: Male
Is there a copy of that speech somewhere I wonder?

_________________
Deep below the dunes I roved
Past the rows, past the rows
Beside the acacias freshly in bloom
I sent men to their doom


Top
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 1:35 am 
Offline
User avatar
Of Counsel
 Profile

Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:14 am
Posts: 37778
Location: OmaGOD!!!
Gender: Male
ElPhantasmo wrote:
Is there a copy of that speech somewhere I wonder?


I don't think official copies of speeches like that exist, probably just reports. I could be wrong though.

--PunkDavid

_________________
Unfortunately, at the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius, the Flower Children jerked off and went back to sleep.


Top
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 3 posts ] 

Board index » Word on the Street... » News & Debate


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 48 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
It is currently Sat Nov 22, 2025 9:59 pm